TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION begins after an epic battle left a great city torn, but with the world saved. As humanity picks up the pieces, a shadowy group reveals itself in an attempt to control the direction of history...while an… MoreTRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION begins after an epic battle left a great city torn, but with the world saved. As humanity picks up the pieces, a shadowy group reveals itself in an attempt to control the direction of history...while an ancient, powerful new menace sets Earth in its crosshairs. With help from a new cast of humans (led by Mark Wahlberg), Optimus Prime and the Autobots rise to meet their most fearsome challenge yet. In an incredible adventure, they are swept up in a war of good and evil, ultimately leading to a climactic battle across the world. (C) Paramount

Consensus:
With the fourth installment in Michael Bay's blockbuster Transformers franchise, nothing is in disguise: Fans of loud, effects-driven action will find satisfaction, and all others need not apply.

Richard Brody

New Yorker

The few authentic inspirations to be found in the movie's hundred and sixty-five roiling minutes involve gigantic science-fiction contrivances.

Transformers: Age of Extinction is as close to an incoherent mess of movement & noise as cinema gets. Michael Bay is slowly perfecting his brand of blockbuster, and to be honest it's getting quite compelling to watch him fall down this rabbit hole

Long before Optimus Prime hoists his hulking metal frame onto the back of a giant robot dinosaur, wields his mighty sword and rides valiantly away to save the planet once more, Transformers: Age of Extinction plays like a parody ...

Four movies in, at this point you can either fall back on the old criticisms of Michael Bay as a filmmaker or simply let down your guard and look for any simple… MoreFour movies in, at this point you can either fall back on the old criticisms of Michael Bay as a filmmaker or simply let down your guard and look for any simple pleasures offered by the Transformers franchise, a series mostly known for chaotic plotting and action. Age of Extinction is probably the best Transformers film since the first one (take that for what you will) but it still has all the hallmarks of the obtuse and convoluted plotting, absurd and obnoxious characters, juvenile humor, intense product placement, and often incoherent action. Gone are the characters from the first three films and in their stead is Mark Wahlberg (upgrade) as a Texan inventor named, get this, Cade Yeager. He and his teen daughter come into contact with Optimus Prime and are on the run from multiple forces. Apparently a bounty hunter is looking to target Prime. The U.S. has a black ops team tracking down Transformers in hiding. And Stanley Tucci plays a business tycoon who wants to make his own Transformers via their magic substance "Transformium." Reading all of that, you realize the pieces still don't really make sense, and that's before the robot dinosaurs come into play. And yet Bay and his team have fine-tuned the entertaining aspects of the franchise and better consolidated them in the fourth film. A badass alien bounty hunter/collector is a great addition, adding the government as an adversary, Titus Welliver (TV's Lost) as a cocksure special agent, Tucci as a corporate blowhard, and robot dinosaurs, it all sort of works on its own terms. Again, if you try and logically connect the pieces, it won't happen. By this point, if you're not a fan of the series, there's no real reason to continue watching, but if you've found any semblance of enjoyment then there should be enough to keep your attention with the fourth film.
Nate's Grade: C+

Al S

It took them four films, but they finally made one worth of its weight. It's the best Transformers ever. A frequently stylish, heart-pounding and… MoreIt took them four films, but they finally made one worth of its weight. It's the best Transformers ever. A frequently stylish, heart-pounding and adrenaline-charged movie that will blow you away. Director, Michael Bay crafts another explosively exciting adventure that is nothing but a good time. A tremendously spectacular and unforgettable must-see action-adventure. A wickedly entertaining two and half hour roller-coaster ride from start to finish. It's smart, thrilling, suspenseful, utterly funny and loaded with non-stop eye-popping action. The special effects are amazing and some of the best Robot designs by far and finally an introduction to the Dinobots. This film just ignites the kid in all of us. An action-packed thrill-machine that just keeps better and better as it goes on. It's loaded with great characters, a soli story and a great sense of fun. Mark Wahlberg is terrific. Stanley Tucci is excellent. Kelsey Grammer is brilliant.

Sanjaya 丘耀文

Michael Bay definitely need to know when he should stop making garbage movie and back on the right track by making a movie such as 'Bad Boys' or… MoreMichael Bay definitely need to know when he should stop making garbage movie and back on the right track by making a movie such as 'Bad Boys' or 'Armageddon' that not only awesome but people still talk about them until now.. The most fatal thing that I cannot tolerate is how Michael turns the whole movie into a commercial by turning all the robots into Chevrolet, make a promo for Beats, and gave some spot for fashion commercial such as Victoria's Secret, Armani, or Tom Ford to make a short appearance.. I mean what the hell is he thinking? Not only the movie itself kinda flat because of the nonstop battle between robots, but how weak the main story is.. This time, I definitely think Bay should stop..

Manu Gino

This is not war, it's extinction.
Good Action Movie! Age of Extinction probably has the worst plot of all the transformers. It's like they… MoreThis is not war, it's extinction.
Good Action Movie! Age of Extinction probably has the worst plot of all the transformers. It's like they didn't even try to develop a story line. It's over 2 1/2 hours of explosions and CGI with cool but uninteresting characters. I feel like they could have done a much better job if they developed the characters more and had better dialogue as the characters had potential. If you are a child this movie is perfect. Despite the questions popping out of nowhere, the plot is quite entertaining and at most times makes the watcher wonder what will happen next, unlike the first three installations. The visuals are absolutely amazing though.
After the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons that leveled Chicago, humanity thinks that all alien robots are a threat. So Harold Attinger, a CIA agent, establishes a unit whose sole purpose is to hunt down all of them. But it turns out that they are aided by another alien robot who is searching for Optimus Prime. Cade Yeager, a "robotics expert", buys an old truck and upon examining it, he thinks it's a Transformer. When he powers it up, he discovers it's Optimus. Later, men from the unit show up looking for Optimus. He helps Yeager and his daughter escape but are pursued by the hunter. They escape and Yeager learns from technology he took from the men that a technology magnate and defense contractor named Joshua Joyce is part of what's going on, so they go to find out what's going on.

Jon Lantz

This started out way better than I thought, but then fell off the rails at the end. Did it end? I wasn't sure because it felt like it went on forever.

Phil Hubbs

So its come to this, despite the fact the last three movies were generally seen as complete and utter tripe, people for some reason still went and paid to see… MoreSo its come to this, despite the fact the last three movies were generally seen as complete and utter tripe, people for some reason still went and paid to see them. This in turn gave Bay and the powers that be good enough reason to churn out yet another slice of poo promising it wouldn't actually be a slice of poo. Yes if ever there was a franchise that is solely based around the mighty Dollar then this is it, and by that I mean the movie has been made with no soul love care or real attention to anything other than to look BIG and suck the money from your pocket.
What really makes no sense to me is the fact that people still paid to go and see it! Fool us all once Mr Bay...shame on you, fool us all twice...shame on us, fool us all three times...we're all a bunch of idiots, fool us all four times...I give up! Its utterly amazing to me that Bay and co actually said this film would be different, it wouldn't be anything like the previous movies, new cast, new approach etc...yet they basically lied, its exactly like the previous movies.
The plot sees the Autobots on the run from humans because we no longer want anything to do with them...understandable I guess. At the same time the dastardly CIA is helping a lone bounty hunter Transformer (Decepticon) track down the remaining Autobots to try and locate Prime so he can be taken back to his employers...sounds a bit 'Boba Fett-ish' does it not. This yet again sees a bunch of humans helping the Autobots as they also attempt to stop a company creating their own Transformer army using Transformium found with ancient dinosaur skeletons. The company uses Megatron's head for data resulting in Megatron being reincarnated as Galvatron (a newly created Transformer by the company) and leading these new Transformers against everybody. Oh and there's this bomb gadget that cyberforms land into metal (Transformium) which Galvatron/Megatron wants to use on Earth, it came from the bounty hunter as a reward to the CIA for tracking down Prime, the CIA in turn gives it to the rich company for their Transformer army project.
I guess we're all used to the fact now that our beloved Transformers franchise has been butchered by Bay and isn't coming back. So its of no surprise that he further destroys the original source material with this hectic plot. Galvatron is built by humans, the dinosaurs were wiped out by this alien race, humans building Transformer armies, the Dinobots just being there no explanations given etc...Nothing really makes any sense in this movie (unsurprisingly), Prime starts out as a rusting pile of junk with various injuries, yet he merely scans this new truck and turns into a gleaming brand new truck with a new paint job and no apparent injuries, so was he ever actually damaged or what? Plus why has his design changed? can these Transformers alter their actual design?! wouldn't that alter the way they transform? Mind you I say that but we can't actually see what the hell is happening when they do transform, its just a mass of tiny shiny parts moving.
I also realised in this new film that the Transformers have no size issues, by that I mean Prime transforms from an average size truck into a massive robot...how? in the original source material if the Transformer was small he transformed into a small vehicle or object, all the Transformers appear to be the same size in the movies yet transform into various small slim vehicles. It also bugs the shit outta me that virtually every vehicle is a flippin' super car! that's not the idea Bay, they transform into various mobiles for cover, you don't get much cover transforming into a fecking blue Bugatti Veyron sheesh!
Carrying on from that complaint is the new Autobot designs...head in palms...now. So now there is a fat bearded Autobot who smokes a cigar (?!) and looks like an old prospector miner. Crosshairs is now a very easy to conceal flashy metallic green Corvette and somehow has his own trench coat?? Next to that is the samurai Autobot Drift, now I know originally this character was kinda Japanese with katana-esque blades and he transformed into Jap super saloon hybrid type thing...but did he really need to be an actual samurai, why would he even speak in a Japanese human accent being an alien. Its the same issue with the Dinobots, why would they transform into Earth creatures? did they visit Earth back then and that's why? why don't they speak? why do they actually behave like real creatures? There is nothing given to us about these epic characters, they just appear and look NOTHING like they used to...which was awesome. A two headed, two tailed dragon thing for Swoop? fuck off!
All the usual repeated problems aside its business as usual with everything else. Its a Bay flick so expect blondes in tight hot pants, sunsets everywhere, low camera angles, slow motion low camera angles, plosions filled with fireworks, ridiculous stunts and product placement in almost every scene. The Chevrolet Sonic RS made me laugh...just looks like a Honda Type R wannabe, don't forget the usual boring display of American 'muscle cars' such as the brick-like Camaro and various other American motors.
There really doesn't seem to be any sensible thought in this entire production, lets just make it as loud long and flashy as we can, never mind what everybody has moaned about previously, same again. The destruction porn is...is...just...astonishingly gigantically colossal! its a gargantuan spectacle of monumental CGI effects that just bores the shit outta you within five minutes. Not even Godzilla can compare to this crap, there's like...ships and tankers dropping out of the sky onto downtown Hong Kong, how many innocents died in this? So yes the CGI is impressive in places but its also bad in others, bizarrely bad in fact, terrible greenscreen shots, hokey molecularly CGI transformations etc...its like the effects got worse!
There is just too much to whine about here, I can't carry on because this review will end up titanic in proportions. The plot is a hodge podge of various other movies, again you can barely follow what's going on and everything is visually garish and completely stupid. Bay has simply done exactly what he did before, ignored the criticisms and gone his own way making more drivel, how he managed to get Wahlberg on board is unbelievable, obviously lots money but surely Wahlberg knows about these movies (Bay lied to them too maybe). Tucci is there to try an make things better with dumb comedy, Peltz merely does everything Fox would have done and apparently Grammer is now being trained in the Liam Neeson school of becoming an old man badass?
I can't believe we've come to a point where a six year old franchise is soooo bad that it now needs to be rebooted from scratch. That's how bad Bay has taken this, no I'm not joking, I wish I was...its pathetic. The only one plus point about this entire fiasco is the fact this movie will make your new LED TV look good...other than that lets just ignore Bay and hopefully he will go away.

Liam Gadd

One of the worst action films ever made.

Markus Robinson

I want to make it clear why I walked out of this movie. After about 2 hours of politely watching and re-watching the same slow motion sequence of Mark Wahlberg… MoreI want to make it clear why I walked out of this movie. After about 2 hours of politely watching and re-watching the same slow motion sequence of Mark Wahlberg crashing through a plate glass window as things explode around him, I knew I'd seen all Michael Bay and "Transformers: Age of Extinction" had to offer. And yeah, I got bored. So, while visually speaking this film wasn't awful, sometimes a boring movie is far worse than a bad one.
Read the rest of my review at: http://www.examiner.com/review/transformers-age-of-extinction-i-walked-out
Follow me on Twitter @moviesmarkus

Eugene Bernabe

With the visual effects and accuracy in its adaptation the only things going for it, there is not much to hone in on the latest installment of the Transformers… MoreWith the visual effects and accuracy in its adaptation the only things going for it, there is not much to hone in on the latest installment of the Transformers franchise. Age of Extinction is drenched in unnecessary dialogue, duration and elements in its story (like the installment itself) making this, arguably, the less-than-satisfying edition to the saga. 1.5/5

Kase Vollebregt

An entirely forgettable affair whose only redeeming factor is Mark Wahlberg's charm. Any one looking for something more than bubblegum for the brain, an… MoreAn entirely forgettable affair whose only redeeming factor is Mark Wahlberg's charm. Any one looking for something more than bubblegum for the brain, an entirely effects driven film, should swiftly step past this one.

Thomas Bowler

Why? Full review later.

Spencer Macklin

I'm just going to assume this is deserving of a 0/5, because it's a transformers movie